State of the art multi-band photodetectors for imaging, remote sensing or communications applications either use voltage polarity switching, or more than one electrical connection per pixel, or spatially separated detectors where each photodetector active volume is detecting different spectral band. Making small pixel pitch 3-band and more band detectors demand more complex electrical switching and electrical connections. This also makes dense, small pitch focal plane array (FPA) fabrication challenging. Related invention on multi-color photodetectors and focal plane arrays utilizing optical addressing describes a method to use extra optical illumination to switch detection bands (See U.S. Ser. No. 13/011,475, supra). This approach demands one optical source to each optical band and demands complicated tunnel junctions to isolate each bipolar photodetector from each other.